PEOPLE

Courtroom drama

Nicollette Sheridan was fired from “Desperate Housewives” for standing up to the series’ creator after he struck her in the head, her attorney said Wednesday during opening statements in her wrongful-termination trial.

Mark Baute said the show’s creator and executive producer, Marc Cherry, struck Sheridan hard on the head in September 2008 and fired her after ABC cleared him of wrongdoing. Sheridan is seeking roughly $6 million.

Baute said Cherry acknowledges touching Sheridan, but claims he was tapping her head to give her artistic direction.

The ABC series’ stars, Eva Longoria, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross, are listed as witnesses. The trial will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how a TV show is created, with both sides focusing on when the decision was made to kill off Sheridan’s character, Edie Britt.

New Affleck named

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner named their baby son, born Monday, Samuel Garner Affleck. This is the couple’s third child and first son. Samuel joins sisters Violet, 6, and Seraphina, 3.

New couple alerts

• After months of downplaying romance rumors, “Glee” stars Lea Michele, 25, and Cory Monteith, 29, have finally gone public with their relationship, insiders tell Us Weekly. On Saturday, Monteith took Michele to his Vancouver hometown for a romantic sightseeing weekend. “They stayed in a hotel, toured Grouse Mountain and went for sushi and sake,” a source reveals.

• Another possible new pair: Eddie Murphy and Toni Braxton. The comic actor, 50, and singer, 44, “are seeing each other and very into it,” a source tells Us Weekly, adding that the romance started four months ago. Braxton’s rep insists “Toni and Eddie are just friends and have been fans of each other’s work for a long time.”

Roundup

• Though she has publicly denied she’s expecting, the New York Post says “Jersey Shore” guidette Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is pregnant and plans to bankroll her mommy-to-be status into becoming “the next Kourtney Kardashian.” Polizzi, 24, is carrying her first child by boyfriend Jionni LaValle, and is reportedly about three months along. But MTV is worried about how to manage the news, given that Polizzi’s hard-partying ways have been turned into a spinoff with Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Page Six says.

• “Kill Bill” star Uma Thurman is expecting her first child with financier Arpad Busson, People reports. The two called off their engagement in 2009 but have been together since. Thurman, 41, has two children from her marriage to actor Ethan Hawke.

• Oscar-winning actress Tatum O’Neal, who has battled an addiction to cocaine and heroin, has checked into a treatment facility after suffering a relapse,
RadarOnline.com reports.